KWANGSI

in full Chuang Autonomous Region Of Kwangsi, Chinese (Wade-Giles) Kuang-hsi Chuang-tsu Tzu-chih-ch', or (Pinyin) Guangxi Zhuangzu Zizhiqu, autonomous region located in southern China and bounded by the Chinese provinces of Yunnan on the west, Kweichow on the north, Hunan on the northeast, and Kwangtung on the southeast and also by northern Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin on the southwest. The capital is Nan-ning. The region's history began in 45 BC, during the late Chou dynasty. Various dynasties ruled it up to AD 1279, when the Yan dynasty gave the province its present name. The Ming dynasty ruled there from 1368 to 1644, the Ch'ing dynasty until 1911, when the Chinese republic was established. Together with neighbouring Kwangtung, Kwangsi in the early 20th century became the base of the Nationalist revolution led by Sun Yat-sen. Following the rise of Chiang Kai-shek to power in 1927, Kwangsi leaders formed the Kwangsi Clique, in opposition to Chiang. This group did much to modernize Kwangsi, but their revolt was crushed by Chiang in 1929. During World War II, Kwangsi was a major target of Japanese attack. It was declared a province of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1958 the province was transformed into the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi. The population is composed of Chinese, Chuang, Yao, Miao, and Tung. The Chuang, a Tai people, are found largely in the western two-thirds of the region, the Chinese in the eastern third. These two largest ethnic groups in Kwangsi have coexisted for centuries. The Yao, Miao, and Tung settlements are widely scattered. The greater part of the Kwangsi region is composed of hilly country lying at a height of between 1,500 and 3,000 feet (450 and 900 m). The predominance of limestone gives many parts of Kwangsi a spectacular type of landscape in which rocky hills, pinnacles and spires, strangely shaped caves and caverns, sinkholes, and subterranean streams abound. The climate of Kwangsi is warm enough to assure agricultural production throughout the year. Because of the influence of the rain-bearing monsoon wind, precipitation is abundant. Agriculture is concentrated in the river valleys and on the limestone plain. Hillsides are terraced wherever possible. Major crops include rice, corn (maize), wheat, and sweet potatoes. The leading commercial crop is sugarcane; others are peanuts (groundnuts), sesame, ramie (China grass), tobacco, tea, cotton, and indigo. The province also produces citrus and other fruits. The raising of livestock in Kwangsi is ancillary to farming. Water buffalo are used as draft animals in the paddies. Pigs, chickens, and ducks are raised on farms, and goats are raised in the hills. In many areas, silkworms are raised on mulberry leaves. Fishing is extensive, and complementary to it are aquaculture and the production of silkworms (the waste cocoons of silkworms are fed to the fish). Kwangsi is also an important producer of timber and forest products. Several of the latter, including cardamom husks, cassia twigs, plantain seed, the seed of the wax tree, castor-oil seed, mugwort powder, dried lizard, mangosteen, and quinine, are vital to traditional Chinese medicine. Kwangsi has sufficient coal and iron deposits to support moderate industrial development. Its light industries produce textiles, paper, flour, silk, leather, matches, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Its heavy industries include the iron- and steelworks at Liu-chou and Lu-chai, machinery production at Nan-ning and Wu-chou, and the cement works at Liu-chou. Numerous traditional handicrafts are also produced. Railways and highways criss-cross the region. The elaborate system of waterways provides transportation throughout the region. Area 85,100 square miles (220,400 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 43,800,000. in full Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsi, Chinese (Wade-Giles) Kuang-hsi Chuang-tsu Tzu-chih-ch', (Pinyin) Guangxi Zhuangzu Zizhiqu, autonomous region located in southern China. It is bounded by the Chinese provinces of Yunnan on the west, Kweichow on the north, Hunan on the northeast, and Kwangtung on the southeast, and by Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin on the southwest. It covers an area of 85,100 square miles (220,400 square kilometres). Nan-ning, the capital, is about 75 miles (121 kilometres) southwest of the region's geographic centre. The name Kwangsi dates to the Sung dynasty (9601279), when the region was known as Kuang-nan Hsi-lu, or Wide South, Western Route (western half of all territory south of the Nan Mountains). The Yan dynasty (12061368) contracted the name to Kwangsi when it created a province out of the western half. In 1958 the province was transformed into the Chuang Autonomous Region of Kwangsia step designed to help foster the cultural autonomy of the Chuang, or Chuang-chia, people, who constitute the largest minority living in the region. History Early history Kwangsi was known as the land of Pai-Yeh (the Hundred Yehreferring to the aborigines of South China) during the Chan-kuo (Warring States period) of the Tung (Eastern) Chou dynasty (475221 BC). A subgroup of the Tai people, known as the Chuang, inhabited the region and had an economy based on wet (irrigated) rice. Eastern Kwangsi was conquered by the Han people in 214 BC under the Ch'in dynasty, and the Ling Canal was dug to link the Hsiang and Kuei rivers to form a northsouth waterway. An independent state known as Nan Yeh (Southern Yeh) was created by Gen. Chao T'o, with Chuang support, at the end of the Ch'in dynasty and existed until it was annexed in 112111 BC by the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220). The Han rulers reduced the power of the Chuang people by consolidating their own control in the areas surrounding the cities of Kuei-lin, Wu-chou, and Y-lin. In AD 42 an uprising in Tonkin was quelled by an army under Gen. Ma Yan, who not only sought victory on the battlefield but also showed concern for the well-being of the people. He reorganized Kwangsi's local government, improved public works, dug canals, and reclaimed land to increase production. Temples erected to his memory can still be seen in many places. From the end of the Han to the beginning of the T'ang dynasty (618907), the influx of Yao tribes from Kiangsi and Hunan added to racial tensions in Kwangsi. Unlike the Chuang, the Yao resisted Chinese culture. The hill country of Kuei-p'ing, Chin-hsiu, and Hsiu-jen in central eastern Kwangsi (the Ta-yao-shan region) where they settled became a centre of chronic unrest. In subsequent dynasties there were further migrations of the Yao from Hunan and Kweichow provinces. Under the T'ang dynasty, Kwangsi became a part of the Ling-nan Tao (large province). The noted scholar Liu Tsung-yan was prefectural administrator at Liu-chou. Irked by Chinese expansion, however, the Chuang people moved to support the Tai kingdom of Nanchao in Yunnan. Kwangsi was then divided into an area of Chuang ascendancy west of a line from Kuei-lin to Nan-ning and an area of Chinese ascendancy east of the line. After the fall of the T'ang, an independent Chinese state of Nan (Southern) Han was created, but it was liquidated by the Sung dynasty in 971. The Sung governed Kwangsi from 971 to 1279 by the alternate use of force and appeasementa policy that neither satisfied the aspirations of the Chuang nor ended the savage warfare waged by the Yao against the Chinese. In 1052 a Chuang leader, Nung Chih-kao, led a revolt and set up an independent kingdom in the southwest. The revolt was crushed a year later, but the region continued to seethe with discontent. The Yan dynasty imposed direct rule and made Kwangsi a province, but relations between the government and the people did not improve. To further complicate race relations, another aboriginal peoplethe Miaomigrated from Kweichow, and more Chuang also came from Kiangsi and Hunan. Confronted with a complex situation, the Ming dynasty (13681644) actively promoted military colonization in an effort to undermine the tribal way of life. It governed the minority peoples through the hereditary t'u-ssu (tribal leaders serving as the agents of Chinese government). This led to some of the bloodiest battles in Kwangsi historynotably, the war with the Yao tribesmen at Giant Rattan Gorge, near Kuei-p'ing, in 1465. The Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (16441911/12) placed the minorities under direct Imperial rule in 1726. This, however, did not bring peace. Following a Yao uprising in 1831, the great Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850again near Kuei-p'ing and under minority leadershiplasting for more than a decade. Meantime, the execution of a French missionary in western Kwangsi led to an Anglo-French War against China that was concluded by the humiliating treaties of Tientsin in 1858. Then, following the Sino-French War of 1883 to 1885, French supremacy in Vietnam exposed Kwangsi to foreign encroachment. Lung-chou was opened to foreign trade in 1889, Wu-chou in 1897, and Nan-ning in 1907; while in 1898 France obtained a sphere of influence that included Kwangsi. The revolution Together with neighbouring Kwangtung, Kwangsi in the early years of the 20th century became the base of the nationalist revolution led by Sun Yat-sen. Between 1906 and 1916 the provincial leaders of Kwangsi supported the establishment of a republic, and during the following decade played an active role in the reorganization of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). Following the rise of Chiang Kai-shek to power in 1927, the Kwangsi leaders (notably Li Tsung-jen and Li Chi-shen) formed the Kwangsi Clique in opposition to Chiang. The group did much to modernize Kwangsi but maintained a defiant posture against the central government. Although Chiang crushed their revolt in 1929, he was unable to end the semi-independent status of the region. The Chuang, on their part, formed a string of revolutionary soviets (elected Communist organizational units) between 1927 and 1931 that gave rise to new Communist leaders. During World War II Kwangsi was a major target of Japanese attack. The Japanese invaded southern Kwangsi in 1939 and occupied Nan-ning and Lung-chou. In this period Kuei-lin became the principal base for the Chinese and Allied air forces, as well as the home of the patriotic press, the National Salvation Daily News. In 1944 the Japanese made a determined drive into Kwangsi; although they briefly took Kuei-lin, Liu-chou, and Wu-chou, they were unable to maintain their position. Chinese forces subsequently recaptured the major cities. In the civil war that followed World War II, the Chinese Communist forces took Kuei-lin in November 1949, and Kwangsi became a province of the People's Republic; the autonomous region was created in 1958 in an effort to satisfy local aspirations. Ping-chia Kuo Victor C. Falkenheim